SINGAPORE, May 18 -- In a soon-to-launch video game titled Sedap!, players can cook iconic South-east Asian dishes like nasi lemak and mango sticky rice-while battling mythical regional creatures.

This two-player game launches on Steam on May 22 for S$14.50 (RM50), marking the debut of Singapore independent studio Kopiforge.

The three co-founders took home just S$700 (RM2,400) a month each and relied on cheap meals - rice with mixed dishes from hawker stalls popularly called cai fun in Singapore and better known as chap fun in Malaysia - to get by.

"Only eating cai fun for a year" became an inside joke, 26-year-old co-founder Jay Wong told The Straits Times in an interview published today.

"Sedap! is our love letter to South-east Asia...